B.C. wolf management plan criticized as veiled attack on the species

Larry Pynn, Vancouver Sun11.16.2012

Environmentalists say a new provincial draft wolf-management plan is a thinly veiled attack on the species that allows the slaughter of individual animals and packs through trapping and liberalized hunting. Ranchers and the B.C. Cattelmen’s Association say wolves can’t be allowed to run free and unmanaged.

A provincial draft wolf-management plan is little more than a veiled attack on the predator that all but ignores the species’ ecological role, social structure, and potential for tourism, a critic charged Friday.

Pacific Wild’s Ian McAllister, an environmentalist who has followed wolf packs for 20 years on the B.C. coast and written two books on them, said the draft plan envisions the slaughter of individuals and entire packs through trapping, liberalized hunting and in some cases use of aircraft.

“It’s basically open season,” he said in an interview. “We haven’t progressed. It’s appalling to consider how wolves are going to be so-called managed in this province.”

McAllister added that the draft plan is full of information gaps and appears slapped together; it incorrectly listed the scientific name for the wolf as Canis lupis when it should say Canis lupus. The province has since corrected the mistake, along with other glitches that failed to properly show graphs and tables in the plan online.

The plan says B.C.’s “wolf harvest” is at its highest since 1976, when the species was declared a fur-bearer on which royalties are paid to the Crown; a high of 1,400 “wolf removals,” occurred in 2009, the plan said.

McAllister said wolves are a “socially cohesive species” but the report makes no mention of areas of the province where they should be allowed to run free without fear of being shot or trapped by humans.

“If you’re a B.C. resident or rancher you can go out in large parts of this province and kill as many wolves of any sex or age as you want without mandatory reporting and that’s just fine according to this plan,” he said.

Paul Paquet, a biologist and University of Calgary academic who has worked extensively in B.C., described the draft plan as “refreshingly candid concerning the uncertainties surrounding wolf ecology, population estimates, management, and conservation.” He added it does a poor job of incorporating relevant literature and contemporary conservation science.

Kevin Boon, general manager of the B.C. Cattlemen’s Association, agreed that wolves are an emotional issue but said allowing them to run free and unmanaged is not the responsible solution.

The B.C. Ministry of Agriculture reports that compensation payments to ranchers for livestock losses to predators — not just wolves, but bears, cougars and coyotes — totalled $63,800 last year based on 133 losses verified by conservation officers.

Boon noted that a six-month-old calf is worth about $800, but is valued at $400 under the compensation program, of which the rancher receives 75 per cent. Not all losses are reported or can be confirmed as caused by predators.

Livestock losses can occur on private ranches, Crown range land, even in several large provincial parks and protected areas that allow cattle grazing, including Churn Creek, Big Creek, Ts’yl?os, and Itcha Ilgachuz in the Chilcotin.

“We have to be able to target the areas that are a problem,” Boon said. “At what point did the wolf become the prize jewel where we can’t touch it and everything else is to be sacrificed because of it.”

He noted ranchers can help to protect their cattle by not aligning their machinery in the field so that wolves can herd the cattle and more easily kill them. He said there are also discussions underway into removing cattle that naturally die on range land to avoid attracting wolves; the same might be done with roadkill.

Randy Saugstad runs cattle in the Big Creek area of the Chilcotin and said wolves are partly responsible for the decline of moose in the area. “We have been telling government the moose were in trouble for a long time and were ignored.”

As for cattle, he said: “We cannot sustain 10-per-cent predation losses. It is a huge issue with no easy solutions that are going to be socially acceptable.”

The draft plan, released Wednesday, supports hunting and trapping of wolves, including to reduce cattle losses and to benefit species at risk such as mountain caribou. It does not support controls to increase prey populations such as deer and moose.

After a history of persecution through bounties and poisonings, B.C.’s grey wolf population has recovered and is now expanding and estimated at 8,500 animals, up from 8,100 in 1991, according to the plan.

But the 8,500 estimate is actually an average, with estimates ranging widely, from 6,100 to 10,800 wolves.

The draft document suggests wolf populations have increased over the last 10 to 15 years in the Thompson, Kootenay and Okanagan regions, appear stable in the Cariboo, Skeena, Omineca and Peace regions, and may have declined on Vancouver Island.

McAllister is asking the province to extend the Dec. 5 deadline for public comment on the draft plan.

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